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Old 01-31-2012, 08:46 AM
  #25  
HarryLeach
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Location: Hampton, VA, USA
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After 3 back-to-back weeks of testing on carpet, I'm ready to give everyone a run-down on the preps I've tried.

On our Carpet, the normal prep is black can Paragon, and there's been some issues when people run other sauces. FXT seems to be the prep people are migrating to, but the FXT guys struggle with grip and tire build up when there's quite a few guys running Paragon, so I was very careful to listen for any complaints about track inconsistency on race day, and watched the cars closely each run to make sure the track was consistent enough to gather usable feedback. The biggest shower was 1/12, where I found my car consistent each run, so I feel confident in saying there wasn't any weird reactions with the track and existing preps in use.

On Rubber Tire TC:

HT Series 1:So far, the sauce I've used the most has been the Clear [colors are a bit easier to reference] HT Series 1. This sauce removed tire build up faster than anything else I've tried, and left the tire feeling very fresh. Previous cleaners I've tried were lacquer thinner, motor spray, lighter fluid, denatured alcohol and Simple Green, and this stuff cleans the tires better than anything else. After a run, douse the tires, rub clean with a clean rag, inspect your tires, then apply more. This stuff dries slow, in the neighborhood of 15-20 minutes, but I've found no difference in grip letting it dry on the tire, or wiping the tire off while still wet.

On the track, the tires scrubbed in quickly, and were consistent the entire run. Tire temperatures were on par with guys running other sauces.

Slight Bite: Red. This sauce dries very quickly, but has a strong chemical smell. Using the Clear to clean, and saucing with the Red, the tire had more grip early in the run, but had more fall-off at the end of the run, which made the car a bit harder to drive. This problem is more pronounced running lots of warm-up laps before starting a qualifier or main. Tire temperatures at the end of a run were also lower, so I may revisit this compound when asphalt season starts up again.

Black Bite: Black. Again, cleaning with Clear, sauce with Black. This sauce has a medium drying time around 10 minutes. I found that this compound made the car pretty free mid-corner, not tail sliding, but definitely not digging into the track. The biggest problem I had is that the tires never seemed to give full confidence until around the 4 minute mark, which is way too long to wait in a 6 minute race. Tire temps were even lower than the Red, so I will definitely revisit this sauce on asphalt.

In all, I pretty much just cleaned and sauced with the clear, and had a nicely consistent car.


Foam Tires, 1/12:

TT Series: Green. This is used in karting as an "inside the tire" prep, applied through the valve stem. I really liked the way it made foam tires feel in my bench testing, so it's been the sauce I've tested the most so far. As long as the tires feel moist when you put the car on the track [not sopping wet, but not as dry as untreated], this sauce is AWESOME. In practice testing, this sauce doesn't fall off for 20 minutes or so, and scrub in before starting a heat only takes 2 laps. The consistency of this sauce makes it loads easier to diagnose tire compound and handling issues. Due to the track build-up on our older carpet, I started cleaning my tires with motor spray between rounds, and keeping them sauced wet as long as possible to maintain consistency between rounds. Without cleaning, a set of tires will gradually grip the track harder and harder throughout the day, killing corner speed.


Sauces still to try:

Due to not having enough sauce bottles to try all the varieties csteel sent me, I haven't had a chance to do anything more than bench testing on these remaining sauces, so I've included my impressions from bench testing on older tires.

E.L. Elite Orange. Dries Fast, around 5 minutes, has a mild parts cleaner smell, and dries without making the tire feel oily, or tacky, just dry. I'll give it a try when I have a chance, but not holding real high hopes for this sauce on carpet.

HT Series 2 Light Blue. Slow drying, strong chemical smell. Seems to leave the tire feeling similar to the Clear. The literature claims this is more aggressive than the Clear, so when I have a chance, I'll give it a shot on Carpet.



None of the Sauces I've listed have had any de-gluing of tires, no discoloration of the rubber, and generally nothing weird to report.


Disclaimer:

I'm not being paid to test these sauces, I was only supplied with samples of the compounds I listed and told "let me know what you think."
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